The Walls of Air Page 0,38

a great train of people fleeing that town, most of them half-frozen and starving. We shared what food we had... We've been on the road for three weeks. We thought if we could reach the river valleys...' Her voice trailed off hopelessly.

The valleys are alive with the Dark. They're far thicker there than on the plains. King Eldor's son Altir has been taken to the old Keep of Dare in Renweth at Sarda Pass, where Chancellor Alwir has set up the government of what is left of the Realm. But they are hard-pressed, too,' Ingold went on, passing over the scene that Rudy and he had both glimpsed in the fire, the sight of Alwir and his troops turning aside the refugees of Penambra.

Kara nodded despairingly. 'I feared that,' she whispered. 'Have you heard of anywhere, anywhere at all...?'

'Possibly. Tomec Tirkenson, the landchief of Gettle-sand, has rebuilt the old Keep at Black Rock. I don't know how crowded they are there or how well supplied, but it may be, if you went there and threw yourselves on his mercy, he could give some of you a home.'

Kara glanced over her shoulder at the scruffy band of rangers at her back, and it seemed to Rudy that, without a word spoken, a motion was moved, passed, seconded, and voted a swift council of desperation that had nowhere else to go. Her eyes returned to Ingold. Thank you,' she said quietly. 'We will go there, and if he turns us away, at least it's better than remaining in Ippit to die.' She straightened her broad

shoulders and shook back her straight, heavy hair.

Tirkenson has a bad reputation with the Church,' Ingold told her. 'But he is a man of what mercy he can afford as Lord of Gettlesand and he knows the value of having a wizard in his Keep. Is your mother with you also?'

Kara nodded.

'And did she go to the school at Quo in her time?'

A rare glimmer of humour flashed behind those greenish eyes. 'And mix with all that highfalutin' booklarnin'? Not her.'

Ingold smiled, and the swift, sudden warmth of his expression captivated her completely. She continued to study him as if trying to place him. Her eyes changed from puzzlement to surprise and then to awe. She whispered, 'You're Ingold Inglorion.'

He sighed. That is my unfortunate fate.'

She was instantly covered in gawky confusion, like Gil when told that she'd done something right. 'I'm sorry, sir,' she stammered. 'I didn't realize...'

'Please,' Ingold begged her. 'You're making me feel horribly old.' He reached out and took her hands. 'One thing more, Kara. There's a band of White Raiders somewhere in the area - I think a hunting band some thirty strong. We came upon a magic-post two days ago. I'd suggest you double your guard and widen your point-men. The Raiders are afraid. They may want one of your people for another sacrifice and they're certainly going to want your sheep.'

One of the men in the group behind Kara asked worriedly, 'Afraid? What do they fear? The Dark? At the name of the Raiders, a whisper had passed through the train, like the smell of a wolf through a herd of cattle.

Well, Rudy thought, they're desert dwellers. Maybe some of them have seen the leftovers from the Raiders' propitiations of the local spooks.

'Possibly,' Ingold said. 'But the magic-post we found wasn't raised against the Dark. I have no idea what it is that they fear, but I do know that they fear it.'

Kara frowned thoughtfully. 'It's the wrong time of the year for fires,' she said. 'And it w ouldn't be ice storms this far south. Unless they're a deep-north band with no idea how far south they've come...'

'I should hesitate to believe that a band of Raiders, under any circumstances, has no idea where it is,' Ingold said. 'But I've seen the propitiations for all of those. It isn't any of them. Have you heard any rumour, any story, any hint of tracks or signs of anything else abroad in the lands?'

A bearded farmer with a longbow grinned. 'That would scare the Raiders? Maybe a million stampeding mammoth followed up by a flock of horrible birds, or a sun-cat with a thorn in its paw...'

Ingold shook his head and returned the grin. 'No - they don't make magic-posts against anything they can kill.'

'Disease?' the woman suggested doubtfully.

He hesitated. 'Maybe. But the Raiders have a rather simple way of dealing with disease.'

'Well,' she admitted. 'But in a big epidemic you can't